CENTRAL JERSEY - The battle lines are being drawn on a proposal to build a natural gas pipeline from Old Bridge through Raritan Bay to Brooklyn and construct a compressor station along an existing pipeline in the extreme southeastern corner of Franklin Township.

Tulsa-based Williams, which owns the Transco pipeline which transports natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico to New York City, has proposed the new pipeline and facility - called the Northeast Supply Enhancement - to increase natural gas supplies to the Northeast, including 1.8 million customers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

Williams wants to build 3.5 miles of pipeline in Old Bridge and Sayreville and 22 miles of pipeline in Raritan Bay.

The new 26-inch pipeline, called the Madison Loop, would parallel the existing pipeline east of Bordentown Avenue in the Madison Park section of Old Bridge then parallel Ernston Road before entering Raritan Bay just north of Cheesequake Creek.

The compressor station, which regulates pressure in the pipeline, would be built in an industrial area of Franklin, according to Williams. Transco has a compressor station in the southern section of Branchburg.

Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in summer of 2018 with the pipeline going on line in the winter of 2019-2020.

Williams will be conducting a public open house on the project from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Hotel Somerset- Bridgewater, 110 Davidson Ave., Franklin. Williams representatives will be on hand to answer questions about the project and maps will of the project will be available for review..

Though Williams says the project will provide customers with an additional 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and that pipelines are safe and do not damage the environment, the Northeast Supply Enhancement has already become a target for environmentalists.

"Building more dangerous fracked gas pipelines and compressor stations not only impacts local public health, safety and our environment, it locks us into more fracking and fossil fuels - which feeds the climate crisis," said Matt Smith, an organizer for Food and Water Watch.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, called the project “unneeded and unnecessary."

"This line would not benefit New Jersey in any way and we will not be getting any gas from it," Tittel said. "Instead, we will see nothing but environmental effects including loss of open space and polluting of our bays. This pipeline threatens to contaminate the wetlands, bay, fisheries, and other natural resources that belong to all of us.”

Tittel was also critical of the proposal to build the compressor station, saying the facilty could create air pollution and water pollution by releasing toxic chemicals.

“We should be focusing on building windmills off our coasts, not pipelines," Tittel said. "We need to be approving proposals for wind and solar over pipelines, new power plants and liquefied natural gas ports."

But Williams representatives say the project is needed to meet the growing demand for natural gas.

The Williams proposal comes as the PennEast natural gas pipeline, proposed to bring natural gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to the main Transco pipeline in Mercer County, is under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.